Assisting after the tsunami

Angels of Aceh. Sophie York. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2005 (ix + 273 pp). ISBN 1 74114 746 8.

Like most people in Australia, and indeed around the world, I watched the unfolding events of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami with horror, and grappled to come to grips with its impact and implications for days and weeks thereafter. Many of us wondered, “How can I help?”, “Should I offer to go there?”, “What can I do?”. Thankfully, Australia is largely well placed to respond to these sorts of events and respond we did, with speed and effect. Our collective response seems to have had a positive impact on our relationships in the region. A quote in Angels of Aceh reinforces this, along the lines of, “Why are you Australians helping us; why are you here doing this when there is nothing in it for you?”. The reply was simply, “We are neighbours”. This book is a very personal account of the time that anaesthetist Paul Dunkin spent in Aceh, as a member of the first Australian team sent there. It is, essentially, a diary written by his wife, Sophie York. Like all books, it has strengths and weaknesses. There are the fabulous insights it gives us about how the response to the tsunami unfolded at the most immediate level — that of a surgical team. This is very powerful, and for those of us who have worked in these sorts of environments it rings very true, and is reflective and valuable. A weakness, however, is that the events that unfold are fairly repetitive. I wonder if the experiences detailed would be more accessible to more people through shorter papers. Aspects of the writing did not work for me. For example, York tries to make the characters more real by describing them physically and interpreting their motivations, but the language and impact don’t feel right. The media did a good job, I think, in reporting on the tsunami, and some of the follow-up reports have been sensitive and insightful. The more that enormous events like this are recorded and reported upon, the better, and that requires different perspectives. York provides a different perspective on the tsunami response, and for this she should be acknowledged. Of course, the work of the team she reports on was outstanding and of immense benefit, and we owe a collective debt to them and their many colleagues involved in the relief effort. David Wilkinson Professor of Primary Care, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD